High Ability Update

This integrated summer school program provides students with a time traveling adventure complete with reading, writing, projects, presentations, and enrichment activities to dig deeper into essential skills. The program is developed and facilitated by Duneland's high ability staff. This year's focus: Ancient Egyptian Adventures.

• High Ability Summer School is available for students currently identified as high ability in grades 1-4.
• At least 15 students must be enrolled for the course to be held.
• June 6 - June 29, 2023 (15 days), with no school on Fridays.
• Location: Chesterton Middle School
• Format: In Person
• Student Day: 8:00 - 11:50 a.m.
• Limited transportation will be available.
• No meals provided.

On Monday, May 1st, the window for our last NWEA test for the school year opens. Remember this is another pathway into High Ability in addition to CogAT. As data comes in, the others on the elementary HA team in the district and I will be inputting scores for the district K-4th. Our High Ability Cadre will use data from CogAT, NWEA, and teacher input for placement into HA for next year. The top 10% of the grade level are identified as high ability or having the potential to be high ability. The NWEA window closes the week of May 12th, so final decisions will be made the last week of school. It's a very busy time for the HA department.

Letters will be sent to all current kindergarten, first, second, and third grade students who qualify for High Ability next school year. The letter will denote if they qualify for Language Arts, Math or both. A permission slip in the form of a Google Form will be sent to your email. Letters to students in second grade who do not qualify for HA in third grade will also be sent home. *Current first and third grade HA students will automatically be in the program next year.

If you have a fourth grader, you will be able to see class placement when their schedule comes out prior to next school year. High ability and advanced classes look different at the intermediate level than elementary school. While we identify the top 10% for High Ability at all levels, additional students are placed in the classes beginning after elementary school. Honors classes are a good fit for many students who don't have the label of HA. Questions pertaining to their schedule next year can be directed to either WIS or LIS. Duneland's HA page is listed below which really goes into more detail.

I cannot believe we are heading into our last few weeks of HA for the year. We may see some schedule changes due to ILEARN &/or NWEA testing in the coming weeks, but I hope to see the students as much as possible. After May 9, I will not be in the building, because I will be at Liberty Elementary School with the HA team to finish the school year.

We continued working on our persuasive paragraph. The word kids was in the paragraph three times, so the students changed one to the word students and one to the word people. We agreed that our paragraph has strong supporting reasons why pets should not be allowed at school! I challenged them to come up with their own title for the paragraph. Students were also asked to come up with part of the last sentence. The title and a portion of the last sentence are the only parts of the paragraph that were not done collaboratively. Please ask your student if she/he came up with their own title. Please ask your student if she/he completed the last sentence on his/her own. They handwrote their final drafts paying attention to reasonable spaces between words. Giant gaps between words are not necessary. I showed them how to indent the beginning of a paragraph. Other than the title and a portion of the final sentence, we created the paragraph together while I projected our work on the board. Since they have my example to use for reference, the students are expected to spell words correctly. Given the topic, this lesson has been a lot of fun! Look forward to your student taking home their impressive writing next week!

We did a lot of work on symmetry this week, and I'm confident they all understand the concept:) You might like to keep your eyes out for a symmetry packet the students took home on Thursday. Your student should be able to explain to you what symmetry means and what makes a shape symmetrical or not. I'm so proud of them! They also answered a Think Deeply question on symmetry. Explaining our math logic in words & writing in math is a reoccurring theme in Duneland's elementary HA program. I'll send the Think Deeply question home next week.

I sent home the content from the students' Edward Tulane binders. We played Jeopardy to have some fun testing our comprehension and retention of Edward's journey. It was a nice way to wrap up our novel study. The kids seemed to love it!

We discussed our Think Deeply question from last week, and I'm confident that the students that answered incorrectly then understand it now. If you're curious about it, the Think Deeply question went home Wednesday. Each student either has a star on it or a checkmark and the word corrected. We all feel good about it, so we are moving on. Before we start our next lesson, I needed to see what the students do/don't know about money. We played Jeopardy to explore & review money, and it was so much fun! I'm happy to see the students have a good foundation in money, because they are going to need it for the next lesson. They are going to apply their knowledge of money in a unique and challenging way.

Fairy Tale Tic Tac Toe Update:

Monday was the last work day on the second move/project. The first work day on the third (last) move/project was Tuesday.

Some of our students are meeting expectations by challenging themselves to do the best and most thorough work they can. We do have some students that were coasting by, so I addressed the issue and have assigned some group leaders. Our student mentors are doing a nice job of helping others be organized and setting an example of digging deeper and putting great effort into their work. Having a peer example of someone working to their full potential is inspiring. I look forward to them having some great work days next week now that they're organized and hopefully motivated to take it up a notch.

We wrapped up our study of Egyptian math symbols this week. Students worked in pairs to explore Egyptian subtraction and answer a Think Deeply question. Writing sentences to explain our math logic is not easy, but the students are learning to trust their voice and be thorough. Students helped their partners, and I asked some pairs to assist other pairs. The question addresses the significance of zero in our place-value system. I'm proud of how far they've come this year! Next week it will be time for a check-up.

The Westing Game has begun! Sixteen potential heirs to Sam Westing's fortune have been named and assigned partners to interpret clues & solve the mystery. Our HA group is looking for red herrings and asking some thoughtful questions. Students are updating their folders as needed. One student has finished the book and is being careful not to divulge any information:) Homework due Monday: Read chapters 8 and 9. Please help your student remember to do the reading & bring the book back to school. Thank you for your continued support!

Students worked in pairs to solve nine Zaccaro word problems. Our primary focus was on interpreting and setting up the problems, so calculators were used. Decimals were part of each problem. The problems varied in difficulty with the genius level problems having multiple steps. We also played a quick round of Jeopardy to test our decimal skills. They had a lot of fun with that!

NWEA is the achievement test which all students take three times a year. There's a great opportunity to support your child's learning based on their NWEA scores. In addition to supporting what's going on in the classroom, you can encourage students to go on Edmentum (AKA Exact Path). Many students are familiar with it already! It's a program they access through Clever. Edmentum gives your child what they need to work on which is directly linked to their most recent NWEA scores. NWEA is a great measure for high ability identification because it will give students questions above grade level as they correctly answer. For our achievement measure we use the grade level percentile. If you have questions about Edmentum, your child's teacher will be able to help.

Email: kapeterson@duneland.k12.in.us
Location: Jackson Elementary School, North 400 East, Valparaiso, IN, USA
Phone: 219-983-3680